South Korea’s finance minister has reported said the government has no plans to shut down cryptocurrency trading in the country despite a spike in crypto related cybercrimes, according to Reuters.
The announcement is a welcome news for investors worried that authorities might go as far as China’s tough action in blocking virtual coin platforms.
The comment by Kim Dong-yeon comes as traders at home and around the world have been spooked by conflicting comments from government officials in South Korea, a major hub for cryptocurrency trade, that Seoul was planning to ban local digital coin exchanges.
“There is no intention to ban or suppress cryptocurrency (market),” Kim said, adding the government’s immediate task is to regulate exchanges.
South Korea has previously pushed for broad regulatory oversight of cryptocurrency trading as many locals, including students and housewives, jumped into hype despite warnings from policy makers around the world of a bubble.
Nevertheless, the country aims to tighten the screws on a market widely seen as opaque and risky by global policymakers, the country’s customs earlier announced it had uncovered illegal cryptocurrency foreign exchange trading worth nearly $600 million.
“Customs service has been closely looking at illegal foreign exchange trading using cryptocurrency as part of the government’s task force,” it said.
Seoul previously said that it is considering shutting down local cryptocurrency exchanges, which threw the market into turmoil and hammered bitcoin prices. Officials later clarified that an outright ban is only one of the steps being considered, and a final decision was yet to be made.
Bitcoin tumbled 31 percent this month, trading at $9,817 based on composite pricing compiled by Bloomberg.
The report stated that rival digital сurrеnсіеѕ Ripple, Ethereum and Lіtесоіn hаvе аlѕо declined by аt lеаѕt 2 percent.
